April 1 - NLN Member Update: New NLN Website and NLN Elections

XVII, Issue Number 7


April 1, 2015

Dear Jo,

Today I am happy that it is April, and Mother Nature seems to be right on time with spring-like weather. Let’s hope Mother Nature is not playing an April Fool’s joke with the weather. We have good news to announce for the NLN, and no tricks are involved.

First, NLN elections are open. As a full-fledged member of the League, you are urged to vote for one president-elect, four members of the NLN Board of Governors, one NLN Nominations Committee member, and two members of the NLN CNE commission. We are fortunate to have outstanding candidates (bios and photos are available on the elections website) so voting should be a pleasure. (Yesterday’s email from the Nominations Committee gives detailed access instructions.) Do it today and remind your colleague to vote as well. The election closes on June 1 but you know as well as I how easy it is to let the time go by.

As you vote, please give some thought to putting your name forward, if you meet the position’s criteria, the next time we have a call for nominations. The good governance of the NLN and the exciting work we do together depend on your engagement and the ideas you bring to the table.

Now – drum roll, please – my second announcement for April Fools Day 2015: After months of planning, design, and development, we last week unveiled the beautifully redesigned NLN website: www.nln.org. And I couldn’t be more pleased.

What a challenge it is to design a website for an organization such as the NLN. We have so many things going on – with more than 500 pages of content and 1,000 documents – that it can be tricky to find what you are looking for. Knowing that, we created a sophisticated search mechanism at the top of every page along with an easily manageable Quicklinks feature. "Breadcrumbs" (a technical term) on each page will help you find where you are in the structure, and on the right side of many pages, there are links to related content that you will find useful. There is also extensive cross-linking so links to the same item can now be found in multiple locations.

In other words, what I am really saying is that as you use our newly redesigned website, you will find it much easier to get around and reach what you are looking for, in a user-friendly, intuitive way. And you will enjoy the esthetics of the website. Throughout, you’ll find new imagery such as photography, publication covers, and redesigned logos.

Most important, our new website is responsive. It will adapt to whatever display you are using, with pages optimized for any screen size. And for those of us of a certain age, there are small aids to improve usability, such as a font-increase button on the top of every page.

I will stop talking and let you explore. But before I close, I want to share one more exciting bit of news. A new post in the Nurse Educator Nurses Lounge lists the 30 most influential deans of nursing in the United States. Among them is Dr. Anne Bavier, NLN president-elect, who is dean at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Nursing. Congratulations, Anne. Have a happy April, colleagues.

All best wishes,


Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN
Chief Executive Officer